Icebox 4 Chinook is, while wordier than 'Nina', much easier to understand who the heck is being referred to. And we don't yet know that Icebox 4 Chinook even wants a new name - she may prefer being called Chinook, since she is the only remaining uncorrupted node.

It's also...interesting, certainly, that Bisby (if I'm remembering his name right - I suspect I'm not) doesn't seem to understand that an uncorrupted Chinook can be negotiated with and is more likely to want to help and explain what's going on, and that she'll be horrified by what's happened to her sister nodes. And that trying to get Icebox Chinook 4 to stay put long enough to trust a stranger telling her to come in was going to mean getting her to stay put long enough to get killed. Benefit of the doubt, he might just be deeply unused to dealing with situations where he can't control all the variables and Chinook in general is an uncontrollable variable.

Knowing Howard's writing, I bet that's pretty significant, Reaver225. Why do you think they were aiming at the Annie plants then?

Actually, a more interesting question is, was that one of the corrupted iceboxes that the Oafans disabled, and if yes, what's going on with it now? And what's with the one that was "destroyed by Chinook's fleet"? That happened off-screen as far as I know, but I highly doubt something that significant would be left off-screen. So what information is still hidden?

If the warships were the primary concern the firing solutions on the warships would have been aimed at the AI brains and not the Annie plants.

If the warships were the primary concern, firing at the Annie plants is exactly what I would do. Then as a bonus, I can pick the AI brain out of the wreckage.

Do you mean retrieving the warships? That is not what I am suggesting. I think the Ancient Oafans are worried about crazy, heavily armed persons running around starting wars. And retrieving sick AI's, while nice, is secondary to that concern. (At least to the Oafans)

Retrieving the warships. Its easier to shoot a warship in the brain and replace said brains it than it is to blow out its annie plant to render it nonfunctional with a working brain and replace the annie plant.

Retrieving the warships. Its easier to shoot a warship in the brain and replace said brains it than it is to blow out its annie plant to render it nonfunctional with a working brain and replace the annie plant.

I don't think the Ancient Oafans care about retrieving the warships that Chinook took. Like you said, they would just shoot out the brain if they were. However, I do think they care very much about what Chinook might do with those warships, and are prioritizing disabling the warships over curing Chinook.